In the basement of Ohmatdyt Children’s Hospital in Kiev, Ukraine, mothers and babies find all the comfort they can in makeshift beds and blankets laid out on either side of a concrete hallway.
Older children who are too frail to go home or flee the capital with their families after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are also adapting to life under siege, staying away from windows and lying in hallways while receiving IV treatment.
Staff, patients and their families share the Ukrainians’ sense of shock at being caught up in a conflict that few could have predicted until just a few days ago. Like others, their immediate focus is survival.
“These are patients who cannot receive medical treatment at home, cannot survive without medication, without medical treatment and without healthcare professionals,” Chief Surgeon Volodymyr Zhovnir told reporters on Monday.
The biggest hospital of its kind in the country, Ohmatdyt normally has up to 600 patients, but that number is now around 200, he said during a media visit to the government-organized state clinic in central Kiev.
In a surgical ward, doctors and nurses operated on a 13-year-old boy brought by ambulance after being wounded in the armed clashes.
So far, four children have been treated for shrapnel and gunshot wounds – victims of bombings in and around Kiev and clashes between Russian and Ukrainian forces. One of them remains in serious condition.
Among the mothers at the hospital is Maryna, whose nine-year-old son has a blood cancer that requires regular treatment.
On Monday, air raid sirens sounded in the largely empty streets of Kiev, warning of another possible missile attack by Russia, which it calls its actions in Ukraine a “special operation”.
“There are bombings, sirens, we have to go (down),” Maryna said. “We also get treatment here, medication, but we need more food… basic stuff,” she added, holding back tears as she spoke.
Refugees leave Ukraine amid war
So far, the hospital has been spared the shelling that hit the city’s outskirts, although officials said they had heard gunshots in recent days.
On Monday afternoon, a Ukrainian patrol fired several shots at unspecified targets in central Kiev, according to a Reuters witness. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Kiev is bracing for worse battles as Russian forces close in, and the hospital entrance was guarded by heavily armed police during the press visit.
In the underground bunker, dozens of children and their parents were lying on mats, some needing additional oxygen and others hooked up to IV medication.
Intensive care patients who cannot be moved were placed in relatively safe areas of the building. Children slept on chairs in reception areas. The focus is also on the safety of the medical staff.
“We also have to take care of the staff, because if they die or get hurt, what do we do, who’s going to treat the patients?” asked Valery Bovkun, a surgeon from Ohmatdyt.
Zhovnir, the chief surgeon, said the hospital had stocked up on enough medicine for a month, but added that it needed food for newborn babies.
“Of all things, we need peace the most… this is all the tip of an iceberg… people are, for example, asking me where to buy insulin for children, pharmacies are not open”.
He said he was as concerned about children who couldn’t make it to the hospital as he was about those stuck there. The space typically sees six to seven children a day with common complaints such as appendicitis, but that number has dropped dramatically.
“They can’t have disappeared, they just can’t come here,” he said.
Source: CNN Brasil
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